Chapter 33 - The Trap at the Palais
The following morning, the Great Council Chamber of the Palais des Nations was filled to its monumental capacity. More than four hundred delegates representing eighty-two sovereign nations sat behind curved wooden desks equipped with translation headsets, digital voting consoles, and national placards. High above the chamber, vaulted glass skylights poured pale winter daylight over the assembly floor.
Daniel and Ava sat behind the primary placard of the Carter Global Aviation Foundation. Beside them, Marcus Bennett was organizing folders of operational data, his face unusually grim as he reviewed an emergency addendum distributed to the delegates moments before the gavel struck.
The session was called to order by the presiding tribunal magistrate, a stern Belgian jurist named Chancellor Henri Laurent.
"The assembly will first consider the emergency petition submitted by the European Trans-Alpine Consortium and Helios Aerospace," Chancellor Laurent announced into his microphone, his voice echoing through the chamber. "The petitioner raises formal objection to the extraterritorial humanitarian mandates enacted by Carter Aviation."
Vincent Sterling rose from his desk at the center of the European bloc. He adjusted his tailored jacket, smoothed his cuffs, and stepped toward the primary rostrum with effortless theatrical gravity.
"Distinguished delegates," Vincent began, his cultured voice commanding total silence across the vast hall. "We gather here today under the sacred premise of fair trade, open skies, and international rule of law. Yet over the past thirty days, the global transport sector has been subjected to the arbitrary, dictatorial whims of Carter Global Enterprises."
Vincent turned, gesturing with sweeping drama toward Daniel and Ava.
"Under the guise of a so-called 'emergency humanitarian exemption,' Daniel Carter unilaterally breached bilateral commercial treaties in Chicago, seizing valuable logistics assets and unlawfully voiding seventy million dollars in legitimate contracts. He did so not out of regulatory necessity, but to retaliate against personal commercial rivals following a petty interpersonal grievance involving his adolescent daughter."
A collective rustle of papers and low whispers swept through the council floor. Several foreign delegates exchanged skeptical glances, leaning into their translation microphones.
"If this assembly allows an American billionaire to weaponize international emergency statutes whenever his child’s feelings are ruffled on an airplane," Vincent proclaimed, his voice rising in righteous indignation, "then international commercial law ceases to exist. We propose Resolution 109: an immediate moratorium suspending Carter Aviation’s European commercial flight permits pending a full international antitrust investigation."
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On the primary display screens, the draft resolution illuminated in bold, crimson letters. If passed, the resolution would immediately ground every Carter cargo aircraft across twenty-seven European airports, crippling their transatlantic supply lines and effectively handing total continental monopoly to Helios Aerospace.
Daniel Carter’s hands remained still on the desk, his jaw set like stone. Beside him, Ava picked up her pen, pulled her notebook forward, and began writing with surgical, uninterrupted focus.
